Got to start with a confession ,the Sonic Screwdriver i didn’t grow up with on TV ,In the 80s Who there was no sonic anything
i did eventually later see a repeat and Collin with a sonic lance.
On my VHS tho the doctor had this wonderful tool he used from time to time mainly locks to escape being gassed in a locked room or other machinery “Deactivating a generator loop without the correct key is like repairing a watch with a hammer and chisel. One false move and you’ll never know the time again.” or detecting floors that are charged with high voltage , so i new of it just wasn’t on the show when i watched it
On a recent trip to Liverpool where there are no less than 2 Forbidden planet stores both companies .CO.uk and .COM and both shops have a vastly superior stock to mine in Manchester i saw the sonic wave two collection and not owning one classic sonic ( i know a shame to the colors) and choice of a few odd color ecclestone tennant version and smith capaldi variant i went with the fourth fifth doctors variant although on the label it has a pic of season 21 fifth who had no sonic, and only says fifth doctor sonic ,
it was £11 so a bargain these came out at originally £25 and i passed we were being a tad ripped off , there’s two sounds and occasionally a third a soft rubber head and designed well looks the part
It s about right size and I have had a good play test of it
Well designed not lathed turned aluminum but a nice piece looks like the pics of the prop , battery compartment is a bit of a pain on the front its intrusive a better idea would be to have all that internally
I will set the scene for you ,after a long period of nearly 7 years in the role and the huge presence of Tom Baker and some 4 years of Romana as time lady companion and 5 years of k9 and same titles,music things had got a little stale ,1980 and time for changes
I think the Sonic first sported this look in Season 18 (I could be wrong could of been sooner ) when the program got a whole new look and overhaul and the producer John Nathan Turner disliking how clever self important the program had become made radical changes and that meant less use of the Sonic Screwdriver unless absolutely necessary ,like locks ,a lesson the new series would do well to listen to it is a tool not a magic wand that can take reading’s
Yes it can be used to speed a story along and the doctor instead of building a flumix machine to do something etc he can and could use the Sonic, but its been a little to much in new who also its not a weapon
new look
you see my sonic screwdriver its a tad bent here
here it is in “The Leisure hive” first story of the new look who and new season 18 with new everything, music, producer, titles, new costumes new TARDIS box prop (that went on for the next ten years until the end of the classic series) even the console room got a spruce up and a service done to the old sonic resulting in its new livery to with the magnet and halo both light red and a white band around the middle
ch ch ch changes…….
the new dr getting to grips with the new Fiberglass box
larger spruced up console room and for first time detail shots of the interior rooms
We got a zero room a sports area a lot of corridors companions had a room a space of there own you could see there world in the TARDIS a library and for me the one of the best was the laboratory
she missed the sonic screwdriver
here it is at the press call photo for new companion Janet Fielding 1981 you can see how exacting this role play plastic toy is ,as i really like the season 18/19 look and remember it in magazines (both the police boxes used the interior ,costumes etc) and it being one of my earliest memories you can see why i chose it
in Season 18 its used and season 19
S18 was a time of massive changes and ideas the like of which had not been seen since 1970 and switch to color and new grounded pertwee era
The sonic makes a good battery in Kinda
new simpler TARDIS key
It went on to dr 5 along with the TARDIS key( Now a simple yale key most likely the actual prop key itself) he gave it Nyssa in Castrovalva and she used it to unscrew some doors and make the doctor a cabinet , she used it in four to doomsday (Reasonable as she was a scientist herself) and so did the doctor and it was used to help Nyssa get a nap in “kinda”
Four to Doomsday
Then four stories in to this new of new look shows Bidmead who hated the thing had since vacated the script editors chair but JNT had enough of it wanted it to go the way of K9 ( this was a time of massive change) and did the unthinkable
since its debut in 1973 with Dr 3 to its trademark use with Dr 4 to now literally passing the baton on to the new Dr 5 and after four uses” the visitation” saw the last use of the sonic screwdriver in the classic series
used to get past a holographic wall in a cellar and then while trying to escape the tereiliptil catches the doctor and ………
“I feel as though you’ve just killed an old friend.”
That’s it until the TV Movie 14 years later with its return with drs 7 and 8 and slight minor changes cosmetically again this time it telescoped down rather than being spring loaded and the magnet was again absent as it was for pertwee , i wish this had gone on to the new series personally, it was seen rightly for the fiftieth anniversary again in the hands of Dr 8, and with its most radical redesign with dr 9 war doctor minus its emitter head (The prop being itself a commercially available forth Dr toy) which was the journey full circle as it started out life as a prop without the head that was added later by the bbc for Dr Who
original prop in thunderbirds
war doctor and sonic
So in all i will say a nice addition to the collection from a good era ,and a must have classic as this is the last one used in the classic series as well as used by drs 4 and 5
i will get another and do a custom third forth sonic ,and pertwees for the collection would be good i will see
this maybe one day
overall a very nice toy i would of loved as a kid,a fare price tag and the fx sounds as usual with Character Options a poor affair as always, hit and miss, but looks neat on my shelf on display
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